i'm back

been neglecting this for a little while. taken lots of pics i was planning to turn into blogs, but i never got around to it. I blame Matt for introducing me to watching tv online, now my laptop is my tv which keeps me from doing other stuff on it, lol!

i realize that my last post was on April 1st, and it was titled "Take 2". well, i guess i have just started take 3. After I started take 2, i was pretty much stuck in between having the full commitment needed to really quit and giving up completely. I started running out of patches, and kept making up excuses for not going to buy new ones. I realize that the second I stop wearing them, I end up smoking! So I decided to save up enough money to purchase the whole 10 week supply at once. I figured it would be a big commitment, and I would be stupid going out and buying smokes with over $250 worth of patches sitting in my closet!!

I told my sister Jenn about this plan, and when she told my brother in law Alex, he offered to go buy the patches for me and let me pay him back just so I could get started up right away. The way he brought it up was really supportive and non-judgemental, which isn't really like him lol. In his defense, he was always tortured me about my smoking, but he's the only person who is really allowed to in my family since he's never really smoked. So here I am on day 2.

It's perfect timing actually. I am headed to Petaluma this weekend with my mom to go celebrate my sister Gail's birthday, and considering that Gail and my mom have been smoke-free since January and Jenn, Alex, and Connor will be there too, I really didn't want to be smoking by then, so it all works out. Also, I started taking a soccer class at De Anza on weekends and am really out of shape! I need to start jogging, which will be easier if I'm not smoking! Unfourtunately, me knee has been killing me so jogging will have to wait until that goes away!!!

Ok, gotta go finish up my paper for my psych class. I'm glad I continued to write about quitting smoking. I ended up focusing on gender-specific barriers facing women who try to quit, and why it's harder for women to quit than men. Turned out pretty good if I do say so myself, and looking up all the info was very helpful to me.

I will try to post pics of Gail's bday weekend!
Take care,
Kells

Take two . . .

So I screwed up, but atleast I'm starting over! This is day two of quit attempt #2. Well, this time anyways. I think this may actually be like the 14th time I have tried to quit smoking. I guess it kinda feels like part B. These two days have been way easier than the first two days a month ago!

Anyhoo, I am working on a paper for my counseling class. We got to choose the topic, anything really as long as it had something to do with counseling that was of personal interest to us. I chose to explore smoking cessation, and I keep finding all this interesting info. Here's some stuff from an article I am looking at right now:

"better treatment outcomes can be achieved by scheduling quit dates to coincide with the follicular phase of the MC in female smokers"

Let me translate: the follicular phase is basically the two weeks after you get your period, a.k.a. non-psychiotic time. I mean it makes sense! Well, good for me! I didn't do it on purpose, but so far I am on track to be successfull! Sweet!

kells